“We may need to do a tactical retreat, and fast. I’ll try to keep these two off you while you high tail it back to the Helios. As soon as I see you take off, I’ll break off and catch up to you. Got it?”
“Well fuck,” answered Reece, frustrated at the seemingly necessary retreat. “Yeah, I got it.”
“Get ready,” commanded Karina as she positioned herself between Reece, Sebastian, Commander Rogers, and their squad of undead monsters. The lilitu brought up her spear and made ready to wield it in Reece’s defense as he fled. The thought left a bad taste in his mouth, but he trusted her instincts. The odds clearly weren’t in their favor.
Before she could give the command to run, chaos erupted from the flank of the large group of undead. Sebastian and the commander turned around to see a large yellowish cat-like creature start tearing into one of the dread wolves. Then another one of the creatures engaged a dread wolf on the other side of the loose formation. Soon, a half-dozen of the enormous cats were attacking the unprepared group, having caught them flat-footed. Adding to the battle, gunshots began ringing out from all around the field of battle.
“So, what now?” asked Reece, realizing that the odds had just shifted.
“Now, we fight,” answered the girl with a wicked grin on her face.
Realizing that their window to close the trap on Reece and Karina was closing, Sebastian and the commander scowled in frustration. With a roar, the commander charged Reece with inhuman speed. The vampire came in even faster, but Karina stepped up to meet him. As he approached the girl, Reece watched him out of the corner of his eye. The vampire twisted his walking stick and pulled it apart to reveal twin rapiers. Each was slightly offset from the other as they were obviously made to fit together.
As the two powerful beings clashed together in a shower of sparks, the rapid-fire sounds of metal on metal echoed through the area. Reece was relieved to see that Karina was clearly faster than the vampire, but he wielded two weapons compared to her single long spear. However, she had been using the deadly instrument for centuries and wielded it as an extension of her body. It seemed the lilitu had the upper hand.
She used the spear’s blade to keep the vampire at bay, and the weapon’s shaft and spiked butt to attack and defend against Sebastian’s relentless assault whenever he got within its longer reach. The three weapons sung and clanged together with such speed and force that a disharmony of metallic resonances reverberated across the battlefield.
Unfortunately, although she was more than holding her own, she had little time to assist Reece with his current and very deadly predicament. Cursing, he knew he had to let Karina handle it. He had problems of his own and one of them was barreling down on him. He prepared to accept the charge of his former commander.
The mutated Rogers went for a flying tackle. Reece was barely able to dodge the overconfident attack, sticking his katana in deep to the passing man’s side as he flew by. Reece watched as the wound began healing almost immediately. The commander stood back up and sneered, approaching Reece much more cautiously. Stepping in, he feinted to Reece’s right and came in with a punch square into his chest, knocking Reece back a solid meter and making his sternum throb in pain. Reece was able to sweep the katana across at the same time, slicing into the commander’s chest.
Growling, the commander came back in and knocked the sword out of Reece’s hand before swinging his fist at Reece’s face. Knowing he couldn’t avoid the punch, Reece lowered his head to meet it. The commander’s powerful punch hit Reece right in the forehead, breaking every bone in his hand. It wasn’t a complete win, as it knocked Reece back several steps to fall on his ass, completely dazed. The commander just smiled as his hand began to heal, approaching the stunned Reece to finish him off.
Before the commander could reach him, someone blocked the way and punched the commander hard in the face, knocking him back and loudly breaking his nose. A moment later, the figure spoke. It was a voice that Reece had heard somewhere before.
“Well... hello there, Commander Rogers,” said the man as he smiled coldly. “It’s been a while. By the way, ojete, that was for Solomon. Now, I do believe I owe you one as well.”
Reece’s head had cleared enough to notice that a dark-haired man about his size stood between himself and the commander. As the familiar figure and the commander faced off, Reece instantly recognized the man’s face.
“Angel! Impeccable timing,” he called out through the pain, glad to see that the man was still alive. Despite only training together for four days, he felt like they had become friends. Now here he was, joining Reece’s desperate battle against the commander and his evil cult of elite pricks. Reece couldn’t help but smile as he prepared to stand.
“Hey again, Reece,” said Angel as he flashed him a quick smile before refocusing on the commander.
“Long time, no see,” said Reece, as he tried to buy some time to get back into the fight. “So, commander...let’s talk surrender.”
“Of course,” answered the Commander, hesitating to reply. “I accept your unconditional surrender. You’re making a smart decision.”
“Nah,” cut in Reece. “Not really what I meant. That’s okay. You always were an arrogant prick, you know that?”
Quickly catching on, Angel threw more fuel on the fire. “You’re giving him too much credit, Reece. From what I remember, he wasn’t much of a thinker.”
Reece didn’t expect the commander to answer. At least not with words. He was merely stalling long enough to recover. He wasn’t sure how much good Angel would be in a fight against the augmented and mutated Commander Rogers, so he wanted to ensure they could take the monster on together.
Refusing to let Angel face the commander alone, Reece had forced himself to his feet and located his katana while he was verbally abusing the commander. Roger’s eyes blazed with a fiery madness. Without taking his eyes off the commander, Reece slipped his foot under the katana’s blade and kicked it up into his hand.
The slick move broke the spell and the commander roared as he attacked Angel with reckless abandon. Reece swiftly joined the tense melee as the other two men were continually circling each other, Angel slowly being driven back by the commander’s powerful punches. By the time Reece had closed the distance, Rogers had Angel down on one knee.
The commander clearly had the upper hand, though Angel was successfully blocking most of the blows with his forearms. Reece approached the commander from behind and drove his katana through the commander’s back and out his chest, violently twisted the blade, and wrenched it back out with a long spray of blood.
“Commander Rogers, you haven’t been paying attention,” said Reece with a wicked grin.
Instead of dying, the commander back-handed Reece and sent him and his sword flying. Reece’s mouth filled with blood and he was pretty sure he had cracked more than a couple of ribs. With no other option, he slowly worked on getting himself back up as the commander single-mindedly strode towards him, clearly livid. He accentuated each step to intimidate Reece, who had really started to annoy him. Angel was nowhere in sight. Reece had counted on the man to back his play, but it looked like it was just him and the commander for the time being.
“Oh great,” grumbled Reece under his breath as he braced himself for an even worse beating.
“Alright piss-ant, this is gonna hurt you a lot more than it hurts me,” growled the larger man.
The commander wound up with a clenched fist, prepared to end Reece in one powerful punch. However, just before the commander reached him, another one of the large cat-like creatures launched itself onto the unhinged man. The beast latched its jaws around the cocked arm before it could be used to punch Reece in the face. Shaking its head violently, the beast brought the commander to his knees.
Recovering quickly, the commander was able to punch the cat in the face with his other fist enough times to get it to let go. It jumped back out of range of the punishing fist and circled the commander as his blood ran freely down his arm from the horrible wounds that had been inflicted by the cat.
Now that Reece got a good look at it, it resembled a jaguar. Only it was much bigger and had a savage look to it. The two beings traded a few more blows, the beast clawing the commander while the big man rained punches into the cat’s thick hide. Reece slowly recovered from the beating that he had already taken.
The commander looked to be getting the upper hand, so Reece threw himself back into the fight. Somehow, he hadn’t dropped his sword. With the weapon at the ready, he waited for another opportunity to approach the commander unnoticed. When one seemed to present itself, Reece lunged again with his katana at the commander’s back. This time, the commander saw him coming. In fact, it became clear that he had baited him into approaching.
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Rogers spun to the side, avoiding the blade while slamming his fist down onto Reece’s back like a hammer. The blow dropped Reece onto his stomach, but it bought the cat creature enough time to see an opening and launch itself at the commander. The creature drew deep scratches across the man’s face, ruining one of his eyes. He was still healing through all his wounds, but the process was taking a toll and it seemed to be taking more time for the commander to heal. Reece forced himself back up and sliced his katana through the back of one of the commander’s ankles, severing Roger’s Achille’s tendon as he rose.
The half-blind man dropped to one knee but managed to punch the charging cat full in its fanged mouth. The great spotted cat fell back and yelped in pain, just as Reece had finished standing up. Seeing a fleeting opening, Reece brought the katana around and struck hard. The commander was quick, pivoting to face off against Reece even as he attacked. By the time he had his eyes on Reece and had registered what was happening, Reece’s hand-crafted blade had quickly and cleanly finished its deadly arc.
Reece watched as Commander Roger’s face transformed into a look of shock and confusion. The commander’s eyes went dull and a moment later, his mouth went slack. Then Commander Roger’s head rolled off the stump of his neck. It was right where Reece had just sliced through it. He smiled. The commander’s end was fitting. He had done it with the katana that he had fashioned for Aika. She would still be alive if it wasn’t for the Commander’s actions in service to his Order.
Reece continued watching as the commander’s headless body first dropped to its knees, swaying for a moment before falling to the side onto the asphalt of the base’s main road. As blood pooled around the decapitated body, Reece glanced at the big cat that had saved him. The cat looked back at him, then turned its head to look to the right of where Reece was standing.
Following the jaguar-like animal’s gaze, Reece saw that Karina was also in the fight of her life. Forgetting about Angel’s sudden disappearance from the fight, Reece readied his katana and approached the pair of dueling immortals. Before he got more than a few steps, he felt a hand on his shoulder. It stopped him from continuing any closer to the lethal ballet.
“Don’t,” came Angel’s voice from behind him. “Neither of us has the speed or power to assist her. Just look at them, we would just get in her way and perhaps cause her to make a costly mistake.”
Reece couldn’t deny the man’s words as he watched the little blonde girl employ her wicked long spear to savage effect. She had several small cuts that her bigger opponent had managed to inflict upon her with his rapiers. Karina had inflicted a lesser number of wounds upon her opponent, but the wounds she had dealt out were devastating. Sebastian had blood pouring from both thighs, one arm, his cheek, and a couple of large gashes in his chest and abdomen. Seeing that Karina seemed to have the upper hand, Reece surveyed the rest of the battlefield.
The pack of large cats had decimated the dread wolves but had taken a couple of casualties themselves. The zombies were all but eliminated as the large cats turned their attention to them. They had already been whittled down to a handful by the gunfire from around the perimeter of the area.
Reece saw that several people had set up positions all along the west side of the clearing, hiding behind buildings, barrels, derelict vehicles, and whatever else was available. They continued to take shots at the small number of animate corpses whenever an opportunity presented itself. There were men and women in the company, and they looked haggard and dirty in their mismatched combat gear and unkempt hair but determined in their resolve to eliminate every one of the undead monsters that dared to still move.
“I assume they are with you,” Reece stated as he watched Karina’s battle.
“Yeah,” replied Angel.
“Where’d you go anyhow?” asked Reece as he turned to confront the man.
He immediately turned away in shock and embarrassment, back to watching Karina’s battle as he found that Angel was standing completely nude behind him. Angel’s disappearance began making sense to Reece as the naked man fetched his discarded clothing and began to dress.
“So, you’re like Naeva,” stated Reece.
“Sort of,” replied Angel. “She’s a different clan, but yeah...we’re similar.
“Well, I’m impressed,” said Reece as he studied Karina and Sebastian’s battle. “I never got to see Naeva completely transform. I must admit. It’s pretty cool.”
“Thanks,” muttered Angel as he surveyed the battlefield.
The cats and gunmen worked well together. It only took another minute or so before all opposition had been eliminated, except for the vampire, Sebastian. Noticing that he was surrounded and outnumbered, he laughed in defeat.
“I’ll admit, you’ve got me at a disadvantage,” cooed Sebastian to Karina, a dark edge to his lilting voice.
“Then could you be a sweetheart and die without any more fuss?” replied Karina in her nice little girl’s voice, as she cocked her head cutely to the side.
“Nah, I think I’ll take my leave. But don’t fret, I’ll leave you a present to keep you all company,” Sebastian mocked before letting out a quick whistle, loud and piercing.
A thundering roar emanated from the warehouse building behind him in response to his call. The entire group of ragtag combatants gasped and readied their weapons as best they could.
“Really?” asked Karina, clearly unimpressed. “You are so pathetic, running off like the impotent little coward you are. Kill ya later!” This last bit she said with her cutesy little girl’s voice, just to shine him on.
Sebastian growled in anger but retreated nonetheless as the entire roll-up door to the warehouse was violently thrown outward to land to the side, leaving a large gaping hole in the front of the building. From the darkened interior, stepped another dread wolf. If the other dread wolves were small children, this one was the big daddy to them all.
The only thing that outmatched its size was just how grotesque it was. The meat of its face was largely missing, the entire front of its skull showing through. Bloody matted fur and muscly sinew covered its flanks. Its blood-blackened claws clicked on the asphalt as it stepped out of the building’s interior to face the group. Its sickly green eyes flashed as it began to move.
The beast was quicker than anyone could have thought possible. In the blink of an eye, it rushed Karina and swallowed her whole, the lilitu’s spear pirouetting on the pavement for a moment before crashing down with a lonely clang...the girl’s delicate little hand still holding it, severed at the wrist.
“NOOO!!!!” screamed Reece as he watched the monster consume his companion.
Overcoming their initial shock, and seeing their champion downed, the entire group attacked as one. The werecats grouped up into two squads and flanked the beast, harrying it from each side, even as the human fighters used their rifles, machine guns, and pistols to cause as much damage as they could to the monster, concentrating on its head. The creature rampaged from one side of the clearing to the other, destroying everything and everyone in its path.
Not knowing what else to do, Reece forced his beaten and brutalized body to run across the pavement to Karina’s spear. He picked up her hand and sucked the blood from the stump, letting the small appendage fall to his side. He knew her blood could heal him, but she had always applied just a drop to his external wounds. Unfortunately, most of his wounds were internal so he reasoned that this would heal them quicker. It needed to because he needed to get back in the fight immediately.
What happened next was totally unexpected. His wounds did indeed heal instantly, but then his flesh felt like it was on fire. Every muscle in his body flexed as power coursed through his full frame. Everything came into sharp focus and the entire world seemed to slow down. Fighting through the new pain, he picked up Karina’s spear. It felt extremely light in his hand and he tested its balance, giving it a couple of practice swings before fixing his eyes on the crazed death beast.
It had just fought off a pair of cat creatures, biting one in two before it could leap clear of the massive jaws. The beast seemed to notice Reece, charging him in its relentless destruction of any living thing in the area. He waited for the last moment, which didn’t take long... the beast was ridiculously fast. As the beast reached him, its head snapped forward in a powerful bite. Reece sidestepped the beast as its jaw snapped shut, bringing the spear down and into the beast’s head with all his strength.
The beast’s reactions were unbelievably fast, and it managed to avoid the worst of the attack which left a large gash down the side of the creature’s muzzle. The counterattack was vicious and lightning fast as the wolf’s deadly claw came up and swiped at him. Only Reece’s enhanced reactions saved him from instant death.
Seeing it coming, he stepped into the attack. Instead of getting rendered limb from limb, he was battered by the blunt arm of the beast. The blow knocked him back by over ten meters but left him alive. Thanks to his newfound agility, he was somehow able to bounce once and land back on his feet facing the monster.
The massive dread-wolf charged him again. This time, Reece feinted to the right, rolled left, and slashed into the beast’s flank, causing blood and gore to rain down from the creature. The severe wound still didn’t take the fight out of the massive monster. Since it had leaped past him in the charging attack, the beast kicked him with its hind legs.
The unexpected kick knocked Reece’s body back to smash into the wall of a nearby building. He pulled himself out of the huge crater that his body had made in the wall as Karina’s blood began to wear off. The monstrous dread wolf... slowed, but still very much in the fight, charged him again.
“Ahh, shit,” mumbled Reece to himself as he readied the spear, fully expecting to die. “Well, come on you bitch!”
The beast suddenly lurched to the left as one of its front legs gave out. Its momentum interrupted, the enormous wolf began nipping at its own flesh, as if trying to attack itself. The great beast writhed and rolled around on the ground, trying desperately to get at its own insides. It abruptly stiffened before letting out a pained howl as it pulled its head away from its body. Where its left eye had been was an empty socket filled with ruined gore.
All became clear when Reece noticed a small bloody arm had punched through the beast’s ribcage from within. The arm held the wolf’s ruined eye but quickly dropped it. The arm then grabbed at the surface of the beast and pulled. A small girl’s form followed it out from inside the giant wolf’s rotting body before plopping down onto the pavement in a bloody heap. Slowly standing up, the gore-covered form opened its red eyes and looked straight at Reece just as the large wolf howled forlornly and wobbled as it struggled weakly back to its feet.
“Spear!” came Karina’s voice from the small humanoid form dripping with blood and viscera.
Reece used the last of his enhanced strength to swing around in a circle and release the spear in her direction. She nimbly caught it in her remaining hand and used the momentum to spin her body slashing violently with the spear. The arc of the attack brought the weapon down violently, cutting deeply into the beast’s head. Shrieking a primal battle cry, the berserking lilitu hacked and chopped into the beast with pure fury. The battered wolf tried fighting back, but each time it did, she violently beat it down again.
After a while, the monster stopped fighting back. Shortly after that, it stopped moving altogether. Eventually, Karina was hacking and chopping into nothing but a pile of dead meat and cursing in some ancient tongue. Once she was satisfied that the beast was fully vanquished, she spun and determinedly walked towards Reece. Halfway to him, she stumbled so Reece ran to her and caught her in his arms.